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Promotor Bob Arum Rips Decision In Pacquiao-Bradley Fight (Video)

Nobody was really expecting all that much from the Pacquiao v. Bradley fight this weekend. We all thought Timothy Bradley was overmatched, and our beliefs were confirmed as the fight went on, with Manny Pacquiao winning round after round after round.

But then something really funny happened: the official judges for the fight lost their minds and gave the bout to Bradley.

Yeah, it was a split decision, meaning two judges gave it to Bradley and one gave it to Pacquiao. But even the judge who gave it to Pacquiao was watching a different fight than everyone else, because he had it way too close. While most observers—and by “most” I actually mean “every single one”—had Pacquiao losing only one or two of the twelve rounds, even the pro-Pacquiao judge had him losing five.

So yeah, pretty much everyone was pissed at this result. And that includes, most notably, Bob Arum.

Arum is the CEO of Top Rank, the promotion company that represents both Manny Pacquaioand Timothy Bradley. So you might expect Arum to be a little diplomatic about the outcome of the fight. But he didn’t pull any punches:

Arum was equally frank to reporters in another interview. Here’s what he had to say:

“When I came into the ring [after the fight], I said to Tim, ‘You did very well,’ and he said ‘I tried hard and I couldn’t beat the guy.’ You talk about killing boxing. Even [Bradley's manager, Cameron Dunkin] had it 8-4 for Pacquiao. Something like this is so outlandish, it’s a death knell for the sport. This is f**king nuts. I have both guys, and I’ll make a lot of money in the rematch, but it’s ridiculous. You have these old f**ks who don’t know what the hell they’re looking at. It’s incompetence. Nobody who knows anything about boxing could have Bradley ahead in the fight.”